SOME INTERIOR DESIGN PROJECTS ARE GIFT-WRAPPED

blank slates. They have a nascent, malleable, puppy-in-training loyalty. Everything else is designed from what exists,
maneuvering around constraints and realities. If creative
sovereignty is a designer’s greatest desire, then metamorphosis
is the ultimate interior design rush. And there is no greater hit
than a look at the before-and-after photos.

“The house was very dated Beverly Hills,” says Kara Smith,
principal of California interior design firm Smith/Firestone
Associates (sfa design), politely alluding to original snapshots
of the 7,400-square-foot project. “It didn’t feel new and fresh
and clean, which you ultimately see now.” Gracious but tired,
the interior squeezed into its space like a defeated dieter: a
formerly modern property that had overindulged in the richness
of traditional tastes—plaster finishes, fussy window treatments,
a muted palette wistful for the sunny flirtations of 90210. When
the clients, a family from Indonesia, toured the property, the
husband looked past the cosmetics, enthralled by the dual
staircase. “He’s attracted to symmetry; he has twin daughters,”
says senior designer Steven Didrick, explaining the affinity for
visual equilibrium.

Transformation is still an artistic process, despite what the cable
shows insist can be completed in a weekend. With the clients’
request to forgo a major renovation, and factoring in a brisk
timeline—less than a year—Smith and Didrick had to reinvent
what would be the family’s second home via the optics of their
crisp, contoured rendition of transitional style. “The husband
had a fondness for slightly more contemporary, tailored taste,
and the wife wanted things a bit more floral and feminine. So
finding that balance combined with just the core construction
characteristics was a challenge,” says Smith.